


The Moment

by chellefic



Category: Highlander: The Series
Genre: Fifteen Minute Fic, First Time, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-29
Updated: 2016-08-29
Packaged: 2018-08-11 20:39:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7906939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chellefic/pseuds/chellefic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the Fifteen Minute Challenge: Duncan or Methos says 'no.'</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Moment

"No."

"What?"

"No."

Mac swallowed. He was a grown man -- a more than grown man. He'd lived several lifetimes already. He could take no for an answer. "Why?"

Methos glanced at the stage and then shrugged before taking a drink of his beer.

Mac glared at him. Methos never turned down free food, not without a good reason. Make that a damn good reason, or at least one that made sense to Methos, which wasn't necessarily the same thing. Determined to get an answer, he tried again. "Why won't you have dinner with me?"

"Because you're not asking me to dinner."

Mac thought back over what he'd said. He distinctly remembered asking Methos to come to the loft for dinner. "Yes, I am."

"No, you're not." Methos hesitated for a second, probably as a result of seeing the glare on Mac's face. Mac had it on the best authority that his glare was intimidating. Of course, Methos had been Death, but still, intimidating was intimidating.

"Or not just dinner."

Not just dinner. Well no, Mac hadn't been asking him to just dinner. "I'd thought we might play some chess."

Methos smirked. "Chess. Right." He took another drink of his beer. "Tell me, Mac, what were you planning on serving?"

"Lobster."

Methos smiled as though he'd scored a point, but what point it was Mac couldn't imagine.

"What's wrong with lobster?" Mac liked lobster, liked pulling the meat free with his fingers and dipping it in all that lovely melted butter. And he could just picture Methos doing the same, popping a bite into his mouth and catching a stray bit of butter with his tongue.

"Nothing."

"So if there's nothing wrong with the lobster, then it must be the chess you object to."

"It's not the chess."

Mac let on an explosive breath. "Fine, what is it?"

"Were you going to serve wine with dinner?"

"Yes."

"Have you picked it out yet?"

"No, but I've narrowed it to a couple of choices. Why?"

"Expensive choices?"

The monetary value of his wine selection wasn't something Mac often considered. "I suppose."

"And the music?"

"I wasn't going to put on Yanni, if that's what you're afraid of."

"Maybe not, but you were thinking of something soft and unobtrusive, or maybe something inviting?"

"What's your point, Methos?"

"My point, MacLeod, is that you were not inviting me to just dinner."

"No, I was also inviting you to play chess."

"Oh, you were inviting me to play, all right."

Mac glanced quickly at the makeshift stage, wondering if Joe would kill him if he strangled Methos in the bar. It would be justifiable homicide, after all. No one who knew Methos would believe otherwise. "What, exactly, are you trying to say?"

Duncan knew damn well what Methos was saying, but if he was going to say it then he was going to have to bloody well say it.

"Look around," Methos said, lifting his beer and waiving it in a semi-circle. "See anything?"

"People drinking."

"Attractive, female people drinking, and you haven't noticed a single one of them until now."

There were several very attractive women in the bar, especially the brunette at the table near the door. Maybe he should give up on trying to make sense of Methos and... But Methos was right, he hadn't noticed her until Methos had mentioned it.

"So what?"

"So we've reached it."

"Reached what?"

"It, the crossroads, the point of no return, the..." Methos paused, "Moment."

"The moment."

"Yup."

"We've reached the moment."

"That's what I said."

"And you won't have dinner with me because we've reached The Moment."

"Exactly," Methos said with satisfaction.

"And if we don't have dinner?"

"Then the moment passes and we go on to something else."

"And if we do have dinner..."

"Immaterial because we're not going to have dinner."

"Because you are going to avoid the moment."

Methos nodded, and Duncan leaned back in his chair with a sigh. He knew five thousand years had to make a guy a little odd, but Methos had always seemed sane before now. Well, mostly sane. Avoiding the moment, like you can just do that. See the moment coming and choose to sidestep it. Life wasn't like that. You didn't get to duck out on the moment. Unless, of course, you were Methos.

Mac cast a glance at the brunette, but remained in his seat.

 

Methos left after Mac did, stepping out into the chilly, clammy night. It was one of the few things he disliked about being so close to the ocean; only this close to the ocean was the air both cold and clammy. Maybe he'd move inland. Not the mid-West, it was too flat and full of corn. But somewhere...

He'd be able to go in a few weeks without causing Mac undue stress, now that they'd managed to avoid the moment. Attachment was good, attachment let you know you were alive, but if you weren't careful, then attachment could become something else, something deeper and harder to break.

He watched the cars on the road as he walked the few blocks to his car. He liked roads, always had, even when they'd been little more than dirt paths. Roads led you places, took you somewhere.

Getting into his car, he eased it out onto the road.

And sometimes roads didn't lead anywhere at all.

 

Duncan stomped into his kitchen. He was going to eat lobster and play Yanni and drink overpriced wine and have his very own private moment. Maybe he'd eat the lobster while watching Annie Hall. He didn't much care for Yanni anyway. He'd only bought the CD to annoy Methos. But then he didn't much care for Woody Allen, either, and he'd have to go to the video store...

Stiffening, he started toward the door. Methos was raising his hand to knock when Mac pulled the door open.

"Hi."

"Hello." Duncan remained in the doorway, blocking Methos' entrance.

"Am I allowed to change my mind?"

"That depends. Has the moment passed?"

"I don't think so." Methos captured Duncan's eyes with his. "I hope not."

Duncan stared for a long moment, hoping to read the cause of Methos' change of heart in his eyes. Finally, he stepped back, gesturing in invitation.

"Mi casa es su casa. But we're getting delivery and you're buying."

"I can do that." Methos grinned. "I can do a lot of things."

Duncan had no doubt of that, and he was going to experience every single one of them.

Multiple times.

Because you can't just sidestep the moment.


End file.
